Hospital EDs are extremely busy during the summer months because of accidents and injuries. While there’s no word yet on whether 2017 will break a heat record (though we hope not), you can expect it to bring a familiar brand of dangerous situations. But are you prepared for them?
In the TV show Mr. Robot, there’s a scene where the main character hacks his hospital’s computer system to change his drug test results from positive to negative. Naturally, doing such a thing in real life isn’t as easy as the show makes it out to be. But it does touch upon a real...
Can you take a punch? How do you react to being backed into a corner and screamed at? Can you keep a level head when someone spits at, grabs, slaps, or pushes you? Have you been held at knifepoint before?
If a job interviewer asked you these questions, you’d probably bolt for the door...
On June 2, CMS issued a new memo to surveyors on the importance of reducing cases of Legionella infections. Not long after, the CDC issued a Vital Signs report underlining the bacterium’s risk to patients. First discovered in the 1970s, the Legionella bacterium can cause a type of...
The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ban on powdered medical gloves went into effect on January 18. It’s now forbidden to use, advertise, and market powdered surgeon's gloves, patient...
People can grow used to anything, even alarms. Such is the danger of alarm fatigue; when excessive and nuisance alerts cause healthcare staff to become desensitized. When this happens, healthcare staff are more likely to have trouble prioritizing, managing, and responding to alerts, resulting in...
Editor’s note: The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) released its 2016–2017 Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Hospitals guide in December 2015. The first edition of the best practices came out in December 2013 and addressed ...
A recent study sheds new light on the prevalence of postoperative complications.
In November 2016, a study published in the British Journal of Anesthesia (BJA) found that each year there are 50 million postop complications worldwide. Those complications in turn result in 1.5...
Editor’s note: In February, The World Health Organization (WHO) published its first list of a dozen families of antibiotic-resistant “priority pathogens” that pose the greatest threat to humanity.
"This list is a new tool to ensure R&D responds to urgent...
With suicide rates high and getting higher, hospitals and clinics need to revamp how they work with suicidal patients. The first step is developing a system to identify struggling patients so they can get the care they need.
In 2014, the Parkland Health and Hospital System (PHHS) in...
